APOLLO
13
Launched on 4/11/70 (4+1+1+1+9+7+0=23), it was
the 23rd American manned space mission, and the first to
endanger the lives of astronauts in space. The #2 oxygen tank in Apollo 13 had originally
been used in Apollo 10 (10+13=23). The
LEM was 23 ft long.

There
is no Apollo 2 or 3.

GROUND3/23/61: After a session in an oxygen atmosphere pressure chamber, Valentin Bondarenko
removed sensors attached to him and cleaned the areas with alcohol soaked cottonwool,
which he accidentally discarded onto an an electric hot plate. PHWOOM!
Releasing the pressure so the hatch could be opened took some time.
Bondarenko was still alive when he was removed, and kept repeating, "It was my fault,
no one else is to blame." He died 8 hours later. <5>
[picture credit]

FLIGHT4/23/67:(1+9+6+7=23)Soyuz 1 transported cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov into a cosmic plague of
mechanical problems. "Devil machine!" he is said to have exclaimed,
"nothing I lay my hands on works!" Upon re-entry, the craft's parachute,
released at 23,000 feet, became snarled. Komarov made
his final encounter with solid ground at 500 miles per hour. <567>
[sound credit]LISTEN (155 kb)

SPACE
SHUTTLE TILES
Reinforced carbon-carbon tiles are used where temperatures exceed 2,300F during entry. High Temperature Reusable Surface
Insulation tiles are used where temperatures are below 2,300F.
An HRSI tile taken from a 2,300F oven can be immersed in cold
water without damage. The coating is baked on in a 2,300F
oven. <910>

GUS
GRISSOM
Became 2nd American in space on 7/21/61. Upon re-entry, his main chute deployed at 12,300 feet, about 1,000 feet higher than the design nominal
altitude. After splashdown, the capsule began to fill with water when its 23-lb explosive hatch "just blew," and it eventually sank
to the bottom of the sea.

Piloted the first
manned Gemini (with John Young) on 3/23/65.
He named the craft "Molly Brown," in memory of his lost capsule.

Became one of the first American fatalities
(with Ed White and Roger Chaffee) on 1/27/67 (1+9+6+7=23)
in an eerie parallel of the Bondarenko tragedy. During a pre-launch Apollo 1 test, a spark
from under his seat turned the oxygen pressurized capsule into a blast furnace. This
time the hatch did not have explosive bolts for easy egress.

FIRST
TO LEAVE EARTH'S GRAVITY*
On 12/23/68 the Apollo 8 astronauts became the first crew to
pass out of Earth's gravitational control and into the influence of the Moon's
gravity.

SOVIET MOON RACEhinged on its own moon rocket, the N-1. After its 4th and final failure on 11/23/72, the program was abandoned. <17>

*not counting
rumored lost cosmonauts

SOYUZ
10
Launched 4/23/71, with cosmonauts Shatalov, Yeliseyev (selected
5/23/66), and Rukavishnikov. After docking at Soviet
space station Salyut, they were unable to enter due to a faulty hatch on their own
spacecraft. When Shatalov tried to undock, the jammed hatch impeded the docking mechanism.
Eventually he was able to undock and land, but during the landing, the air supply became
toxic, knocking out Rukavishnikov. Craft recovered 4/25/71 23:40
GMT. Flight time: 001d 23h 46m <19>

SOYUZ
11
6/6/71 cosmonauts Georgi Dobrovolski, Viktor Patsayev, and Vladislav Volkov (b. 11/23/35, selected 5/23/66) took
the spacecraft up to dock with Salyut, where they remained for 23
days, setting a duration record. Upon return to Earth, it was discovered that the
cosmonauts were dead. A valve which was supposed to let fresh air in opened early and let
the air OUT instead. They were not wearing space suits.

FIRST
RUSSIAN SPLASHDOWN
10/76: Soyuz 23 made the first Soviet splashdown after its
guidance system malfunctioned during an unsuccessful attempted docking of Salyut 5.
Landed at night in Lake Tengiz, during a blizzard, and were not rescued until next
morning.

Sputnik-Korabl
launched 7/23/60 exploded.

USSR
Lunar Probe Luna 23 crashed on the moon 10/28/74.

Dobrovolski

Patsayev

Volkov

MIR
23A COMEDY OF ERRORS

The
Mir 23 crew arrived on 2/12/97, during the 23rd week of the Mir 22 mission (Mir 22 became Mir 23 on 3/2/97).

Quick, get the marshmallows...
Fire broke out on 2/23/97, nearly gassing the crew with
smoke, and damaging one of the Elektron oxygen generating machines. Astronaut
Linenger, a doctor who treated crew members after the fire, spent a total of 123 days on Mir.

On the 23rd day aboard for the
Mir 23 crew (3/7/97) a second Elektron failed. As of
the March 14 NASA mission report<20> the crew had gone through 23 oxygen-generating candles, and were awaiting the assistance of
Progress 234 supply vehicle, which arrived in early April.

Bumper cars in spaaaaace...
In June, the aforementioned Progress 234 (filled with
garbage) was whacked into Mir, damaging a solar panel and causing an air leak. Commander
Tsibliev had forgotten to calculate in the extra weight of the garbage.

Hey, what's this do?
In July, cosmonaut Lazutkin pulled the wrong plug and cut power to all systems --
electricity, orientation, life support and communications.

These are only a few of the many thrilling adventures of
the Mir 23 crew.

Insult to Injury...
They finally returned home on 8/14/97, in one of the hardest landings ever experienced by
a returning Mir crew, as the landing rockets failed to fire on re-entry. <21>

Mir
was launched 23 days after the Challenger explosion.

The MIR "lifeboat" is a 23 ft.
long Soyuz.

Shannon Lucid arrived on 3/23/96,
and wound up breaking the American and the women's records for time in space.

Previously served
as backup crew to Soyuz TM-23, which docked with Mir 2/23/96.

Russian newspaper Segodnya reported that he "made
an unforgivable mistake"<23>
in the Progress 234 collision (Tsibliev also banged the Soyuz
TM-17 into Mir in 1994) <24> And he was also blamed for
pulling the wrong plug in July. Declared unfit to repair Mir on 7/16/97 (7+16=23) due to irregular heartbeat and stress, he was put on
heart medication and sedatives.

His stepfather died during this mission. His sister
died during his previous mission. <25>

Mir 23 Flight Engineer
Alexander Lazutkin
eventually confessed to pulling the wrong plug, and blaming Tsibliev. He also
took responsibility for the 2/23 fire. <26>